Ahmadi economist's removal: Pak editorials slam Imran Khan's capitulation to religious extremists - Shailaja Neelakantan
NEW DELHI: "Pitiful", "blatant cowering to the religious right" and "a blow to an inclusive Pakistan" is how the Islamic nation's media described the government's capitulation on Friday to religious fundamentalists by asking Atif Mian to step down from a government council simply because he belonged to a minority sect.
Not just that, two other economists, Asim Ijaz Khwaja and Imran Rasul, who were also appointed to the Khan-led 'economic advisory council' (EAC) resigned from the newly-formed body, for how Mian was dropped.
"Being a Muslim I can't justify this" act of dropping Mian, a highly regarded Princeton economist, who's said to be among the world's top 25 economists, said Khwaja.
"Have resigned from EAC. Painful, deeply sad decision. Grateful for chance to aid analytical reasoning but not when such values compromised. Personally as a Muslim I can't justify this. May Allah forgive/guide me & us all.Ever ready to help. Pakistan Paindabad",
Rasul said he's resigning because he "profoundly disagrees" with basing such decisions on religious affiliation.
"With a heavy heart, I have resigned from the EAC this morning. The circumstances in which Atif was asked to step down are ones I profoundly disagree with. Basing decisions on religious affiliation goes against my principles, or the values I am trying to teach my children," tweeted Rasul.
On Friday, days after strongly defending Mian's nomination, with phrases like "we will not bow to extremists", Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) announced that Mian will not be on the council. Mian's appointment was virulently opposed by several extremist individuals and groups, including the far-right Islamist Tehreek-i-Labbaik (TLP) Pakistan.
These people believe Mian has no place in a government body simply because he's an Ahmadi and because his sect doesn't believe that Muhammad is the last prophet sent to guide mankind. In fact, a minister in the PTI government even referred specifically to Mian's faith being the reason for dropping him.
"A pitiful surrender" is how newspaper The Nation titled its editorial condemning Mian's removal.
"What is most worrying is that this decision displays PTI's lack of grit, indicating that the party will be unable to withstand pressure from religious groups in the future as well, which will only become more violent and active now that their demands are met," said the editorial.
Is it now going to be more of the same then with this government, which in its first weeks, showed signs that it was indeed going to keep its promises of building a 'Naya Pakistan' - 'New Pakistan' - where corruption, nepotism and discrimination have no place?
The Nation believes so.
"Perhaps we should have known it was too good to be true. The PTI government had been having a honeymoon period for its few weeks- with several on-the surface successes like the cancellation of the Dutch cartoon competition and its austerity promises; the government's conviction on a tone of reconciliation and betterment of the country made us believe that the party's tendency of backing out of its promises would not spill over to its governance. Alas, we were wrong," lamented the editorial.
Dawn's editorial said that the campaign by far-right religious elements to remove Mian "threatened to engulf the PTI government in a crisis that, sadly, could have quickly spiralled out of control."
The editorial was very likely referring to the extremist TLP's demonstrations last November that brought Islamabad to a near standstill. The group was protesting what it believed was a watering down of the country's stringent blasphemy laws. The then government capitulated to the TLP's demand to remove the law minister who then resigned.
Still, bowing to extremists' demands isn't the way forward, said Dawn. In fact, it makes extremism mainstream like was demonstrated in the recent general elections in Pakistan.
Consider this: The TLP was formed as recently as in 2015 and yet it fielded a whopping 152 candidates. By comparison, parties that have been in Pakistani politics for decades fielded just between 40-75 candidates more than the TLP.
Then there is an outfit called the Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek (AAT). This is the platform for none other than terrorist Hafiz Saeed's Milli Muslim League, which has been denied registration by Pakistan's election commission, due to its links with the banned Saeed-held Jamaat-udDawa. AAT fielded 43 candidates in Punjab and seven in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, for a total
of 50.
Rounding off the Islamist trifecta was the religio-political parties' alliance - Muttahida Majlisi-Amal (MMA)- which comprises the ultra-conservative, Islamist, religious, and far-right parties of Pakistan that was formed back in 2002. This lot, headed by Jamiat Lemma-iIslam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, put up candidates in 173 constituencies.
In fact, while counting of votes was underway and it emerged that Khan's PTI was leading but would be short of a majority, there was even talk of PTI seeking the support of MMA. In the end, it didn't have to, because PTI got a whole host of independent winning candidates to support it and make up the numbers.
In this scenario then, what was the need for Khan to accede to extremists' demands?
"The PTI has clearly erred in both strategy and political will…," said Dawn's editorial.
Khan's capitulation will cost the country's economy too. Pakistan's financial state is dire. US network CNBC said last month that Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves are at four-year lows, which are pressuring the local rupee and triggering worries that Islamabad may soon be unable to finance monthly import bills. And of course, it is awash in external debt,
"having taken on loans from China for the $62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor," said CNBC.
Mian is a highly-regarded international economist who could help pull Pakistan out of the financial mess it's in. Even the government's own information minister Fawad Chaudhry - at the time when PTI was saying it would not bow to extremists- talked about what an asset Mian would be.
"This is a man who the entire world is saying will receive a Nobel Peace Prize in the next five years. He has been appointed to the economic advisory council, not the Council of Islamic Ideology or something else," said Chaudhry.
An editorial in newspaper The News International said that getting Mian to resign doesn't look good even for the economy.
"This blatant cowering to the religious Right does not bode well for the much lauded EAC, which was supposed to comprise the cream of Pakistan's economists and the private sector," it said, referring sarcastically to how the PTI described its decision to drop Mian as a "tough" one
Mian himself said he resigned for the sake of the PTI government's stability, which he said had been under a lot of adverse pressure from Muslims clerics and their supporters, reported Dawn.
Cheers
I am sure, it is the same on the other side of the border too. 
